StarPlus Language Guide

Basics

StarPlus is a statically typed and basic programming language. It has features similar to C, Java, and Javascript. It is a compiled language and runs with a custom stack based virtual process.

Like in C, the entry-point of every program is the main function.

Functions

Functions are blocks of repeatable code. Functions must contain a name, return type, and a body. Nested functions are not supported at this time

Syntax

func name: returnType (argOne@type, argTwo@type) {
    ...
}

Built-In Functions

The following function names are reserved

• print(variable) -- prints a variable to the console
• input() -- recieves input from the console and returns it as a string
• strcpy(strOne, strTwo) -- appends the values of strTwo to strOne
• getIndex(string, index) -- returns the value of a string at the given index.
• setIndex(string, newValue, index) -- changes the value of string at index to newValue
• size(variable) -- returns the size of a variable.
• sleep(n) -- sleeps for n seconds.
• rsize(variable, newSize) -- reallocates the memory of a variable to a new size of newSize
• intToString(integer) -- returns a string representation of an integer.
• iprint(integer) -- prints an integer to the console.
• random() -- returns a random number.
• fprint(float) -- prints a float to the console.
• int(float | string) -- casts a float to an integer. THIS DOES NOT CHANGE THE VALUE STORED IN MEMORY, ONLY CHANGES THE TYPE OF THE VARIABLE
• float(int) -- casts an integer OR STRING to a float.
• string(int) -- casts an int or a float to a string. THIS DOES NOT CHANGE THE VALUE STORED IN MEMORY, ONLY CHANGES THE TYPE OF THE VARIABLE
• fti(float) -- converts a float to an integer (eg. 4.0 to 4)
• itf(int) -- converts an integer to a float (eg. 5 to 5.0)

Variables

Syntax

var variableName: type = value;

Basic Types

Integers

var exampleInteger: int = 42;

Integers can be added, subtracted, multiplied, divided (truncating will occur), and modulused.

Strings

var exampleString: string = "Hello StarPlus!";

Floats

var exampleFloat: float = 3.1415;

Floats can be created by just adding a '.0' to any number. Using the fprint command, they can be printed to the terminal as a string.

Booleans

Functionality in progress, use 1 and 0 for now. Cast as integers.

If statements

Syntax

if condition {
    ...
}

Comparison Operators

• == -- Equal to
• != -- Not equal to
• < -- Less than
• > -- Greater than
• <= -- Less than or equal to
• >= -- Greater than or equal to

Loops

While loops are currently the only loops in the language, for loop functionality is in progress

Syntax

while condition {
    ...
}

Comments

Single line comments start with the ^ symbol. In a line (except in strings), anything after the ^ symbol will not be parsed by the compiler.

Modules

string.starp

Includes functions that are helpful for manipulating strings. Currently, including this module also includes the math.starp module by default.

math.starp

Includes functions that are helpful when working with numbers.

Expressions & Conditions

TODO

Compilation

To compile a program, run the following command in a terminal:

starpc fileName.starp

This command will create a file named fileName.starpc, which contains the runnable bytecode.

Runtime

To run a .starpc program, type into a terminal:

starp fileName.starpc

If there were no errors during compilation, the script should run.

Building from source

If you would like to build the runtime (C code) from source, you need to have Clang, zip, and Python 3.9+ installed.

To build the project, run the following command in the terminal:

source make-releash.sh

This creates a build folder which contains both the starp and starpc programs. You can then add them to your path.

Known Bugs/Issues

• If your computer does not use IEEE-754 when storing floats in memory (most computers do), there may be issues with how floats operate.

Eric Diskin Version Alpha 2.0